Star Wars: Force Hunter
by Captain REX
Summary: Keth Arthul is one tough bounty hunter, but is it possible that even he cannot handle the power of the Force?
1. The Job is Taken

Chapter 1: The Job is taken  
  
The night was bustling with activity. Cantinas were crowded, the airspeeder lanes full of zooming ships, and lights were bright. Aliens and humans alike were shuffling from shop to shop apartment to apartment, looking to participate in the nightlife of Nar Shaddaa. Whether they were partying in clubs or wandering aimlessly, they were on an exciting and dangerous planet nonetheless.  
Keth Arthul was one of those people making the planet dangerous. Keth was a bounty hunter, clad in blood red armor and armed with blasters. He was currently looking for a job that he had heard about from a fellow hunter. He didn't know what the bounty was about, but he knew that the bounty was high. Very, very high. Almost one million credits! He had traveled halfway across the galaxy to Nar Shaddaa just to take up this hunt.  
He came to the address indicated in the job description. It was a tall skyscraper, and grandly lit. The front door was a spinning door, which Keth walked through. As he entered, he heard the blasting sound of a distinguished jazz band playing, and people clapping and cheering. This guy's gotta be filthy stinkin rich to get all of this stuff, Keth thought to himself, looking around the massive building. The jazz music was playing in a grand ballroom directly in front of the doorway, with people eating and dancing.  
Two curved staircases led up on either side to elevators and rooms. Keth pushed past a few people and walked up the staircase to the right, and was met by a large being. It was a humanoid, with pale skin and light blue veins pulsating under his skin.  
"Do you have an appointment with Mr. Val'Tala?" he asked in a deep voice.  
"Yes, I do," said Keth. "I'm here to take up a bounty issued by Val'Tala here." Keth took a small packet from his belt, and unfolded it, revealing it to be a miniature computer. He brought up the Val'Tala Bounty documents, and showed it to the guard.  
"Very well," the guard replied. "You may enter." The guard punched in a combination on a door panel, and a metal sliding door slid open. Keth entered a dimly lit lift tube, and was transported upwards to the top floor. The door slid open, leading him to a hallway. In the hallway was another guard, who led him to Val'Tala's office. The guard stopped by a dark gray door, and opened it for the bounty hunter. Keth nodded and entered. The door closed behind him.  
The room was dim. Keth removed his Kidarian battle helmet and put it on a table near the door, and then took a look around the room. The office was cold, very expensive, and impressive. He caught a glimpse of himself in a mirror. His unshaven face and straight black hair couldn't look more handsome in his opinion, and none begged to differ for fear of being shot. Sitting at a desk was a large Besilisk, typing documents on a small hi- tech computer. He didn't see Keth enter until the hunter was sitting in a leather chair next to his desk. "Oh, um...please be seated," said the Besilisk, turning away from his work.  
"I think I already am, but thanks," chuckled Keth.  
"Yes, I see that...uh, my name is Tarkin Val'Tala. You can just call me Tarkin."  
"I'm Keth Arthul, and I'm here to take up your bounty that you offered."  
"Oh, the bounty! Finally I have some takers!" yelped Tarkin. "Yes, well, errrr..." The Besilisk began shuffling around through the things on his desk, and finally pulled a holo-projector from the pile of items. He handed it to Keth, who then activated it. The hologram flickered to life, showing an image of Tarkin, and began to vocalize.  
"Hello, I'm Tarkin Val'Tala. I am issuing a bounty on the Dark Jedi...yes, a Dark Jedi...Mon Tifoke. He has been pestering my business for as long as I can remember, and he's gone too far. I want Tifoke dead, and it doesn't matter how you kill him or his associates, as long as Tifoke is dead! Here is a picture of him..."  
An image of a tall, gaunt man with red hair with a streak of blond appeared. He was dressed all in black, but it was in the style of the Jedi robes. At his waste was a lightsaber, the typical weapon of a Force user. He wore large black boots, and black gloves to match.  
"He has stolen money and equipment from my depot in the Corellian sector of Nar Shaddaa, and has headed off planet. He should be on Coruscant, if I'm not mistaken. Closest associates of his are Doc-Far, a Nikto gunrunner, Krrathor, a Dark Jedi Wookiee, and Baret Nuor, an assassin and bounty hunter. It will be a difficult fight, but if you succeed in killing at least Mon Tifoke, you'll get a reward of one million credits. If you kill any of his associates you'll receive one million, five hundred thousand credits, and if you kill all -- which I find unlikely that you will -- you will receive a grand prize of two million credits. Please dispose of Tifoke! I hope the challenge does not discourage you. That is all!"  
The hologram ended, and Keth turned to Tarkin. "A Dark Jedi? This should be easy..." Keth said with an evil grin. Keth had once been a Jedi Hopeful, but decided that the life of a bounty hunter was more adventurous when he was ignored and almost sent to be a worker on the agricultural world of Gravlex Med. His powers had faded, but he decided they still worked enough to conquer a Darkie.  
"Then you'll take the job?" questioned Tarkin eagerly.  
"Job taken. And you'll give me two million credits for the deaths of his associates as well as him?" replied Keth.  
"Yes, but you absolutely must kill Tifoke. If you come back with everyone but him dead, you'll receive nothing," Tarkin ordered.  
"Okay then. I'll see you later then," the hunter said while putting on his helmet. He left the room, walked down the hallway, went down the lift, walked down the staircase after passing the gigantic guard, and went into the ballroom. 


	2. To Coruscant

Chapter 2: To Coruscant  
  
Keth approached the bar and ordered a Flaming Wookiee, a reddish- brown alcoholic drink, and handed over a few credits. He looked around the bar for his son, Brak Arthul, who had been waiting for him while he talked with Val'Tala. Brak sat opposite of him, so Keth took his drink and moved to the seat next to his son.  
Brak was eating Ahrisa, a spicy food, with a side of Deneelian Fizz- pudding and a cup of the pink and green, soda-like Bantha Blaster. Brak's helmet was sitting on the bar, a Kidarian battle helmet much like his father's. It had steel-gray spikes protruding from the top (like his father's), a wide black visor (like his father's), air vents (like his father's), and coats of spicy orange paint (unlike his father's). The rest of his armor was light, most of it left it's original steel-gray color, but he wore an orange tunic under it.  
"Well, did you take the job, Dad?" asked Brak without looking up from his food.  
"Yes, I did," answered Keth, and then ordered another cup of Flaming Wookiee and some Ahrisa as well. "He's offering two million credits for the death of a Dark Jedi and three of his associates, and one million for just the Darkie. I took the job because we need the money and because I'm probably one of the only hunters who can take on a Jedi!"  
"Awesome...wait, a Darkie? Dad, the few years you spent as a Jedi Hopeful aren't going to help you! The Darkie has more experience! He'd chop you up into mincemeat with his lightsaber! He'd choke you until your head popped off like a doll's!" shouted Brak, drawing attention from a few nearby people. Two men began to approach, drawing blasters to shoot at them.  
"No he won't...Brak, get down!" commanded Keth, drawing his own blasters. He aimed his twin Sundance-560 blaster pistols at the two men, and then opened fire. With a loud pa-ping! pa-ping! And a flash of light, the two men fell as the laser bolts hit them both right between the eyes. Keth then grabbed his son and their helmets, and dashed to the exit. The jazz band stopped playing, and people began crowding around the dead men, wondering what had happened. More men began to race after the two bounty hunters.  
Keth and Brak rushed from the skyscraper and towards the spaceport. They had landed the Wraith Hunter in Docking Bay forty-nine, and got there quickly. Keth stopped and shouted to Brak. "Brak, get to the Hunter and initiate the launch sequence! I want the ship ready for take-off by the time I get there! Understood?" Brak nodded, then began to run towards the spaceport again. Keth unholstered his twin pistols, and turned around just in time to see a man swing a vibro-ax at him. He ducked under it and began shooting. The thug dropped the ax and fell over. It continued like that for at least ten standard minutes, laser bolts bouncing off of walls and smashing windows. The whole time the bounty hunter was not injured or even scratched. He kept firing with only his small pistols, nailing many thugs with fatal shots.  
Keth then activated his jetpack. A blasting roar filled the air as he darted upwards. Then he dived low and dropped a thermal detonator, first making sure that he had set it to a lower setting. Then flew upwards again, and towards the spaceport. Behind him, a large explosion began ripping apart the walkway and the thugs, tossing debris and people in several directions. His thermal detonator had done it's job, and he smiled to himself as he saw the thugs plummet into the seemingly endless shafts between the buildings of Nar Shadaa.  
Soon he was at Docking Bay forty-nine. His starship, the Wraith Hunter, was purring like a nexu, the engines roaring. "Come on Dad!" hollered Brak from the back seat of the ship. Keth leapt into the front seat, and closed the cockpit window. He activated the seals, closing them off from the airless void called outer space so they wouldn't be sucked out once off of Nar Shadaa. He hit the accelerator, causing the ship to rise into the air and shoot forward as if fired out of a cannon. A few thugs had reached the docking bay a little late, and began shooting rifles at the Arthuls' ship.  
Soon, at least three other ships emerged from another docking bay, and began chasing after the Wraith Hunter. They were Star Vipers, jagged gray and black ships with four laser cannons, with which they opened fire with, violet rays of energy speeding towards the Hunter. Keth maneuvered the ship around the laser fire, and pounded the accelerator to the max. Brak took control of the rear cannons, and began shooting back at the Star Vipers. The clash of violet and red was startling to the traffic controllers -- though not uncommon -- and let the ships pass without even so much as a safety message.  
Soon the ships were in space. Brak was aiming carefully in the rear seat, locked onto a fighter, and pressed the trigger. He had squeezed the wrong trigger though, and instead fired an enhanced proton torpedo. The sparkling energy-shelled warhead raced towards the doomed starfighters, and Brak had to look away from the blinding explosion. "Brak, don't waste my torps! You know the enhanced ones are illegal!" growled Keth from the pilot seat.  
"Sorry Dad, but at least I took them all out," Brak muttered. The boy looked back into the viewport to see blue sparks shooting in all directions, and chunks of twisted metal floating around. One fighter was still spinning around, heavily damaged. Brak open fired on it, this time pulling the right trigger, and vaporized it with a quick barrage of lasers.  
"Good job, but just don't use the torps unless I say," Keth said as he waited for the navi-computer to bring up the hyperspace coordinates for Coruscant. As soon as he heard the beeping sound that confirmed there finding, he pulled down the lever and the Wraith Hunter made the jump into hyperspace. Star streaked past, becoming white blurs, and then formed a big blue, tunnel-like light.  
"Who were those guys anyway?" asked Brak.  
"Probably thugs of an 'old friend,'" chuckled Keth, thinking of how many traitors he'd thwarted in his years of experience.  
Keth sat back in his seat, looking out the window. He had always liked making the jump to lightspeed. It was always so calm -- though deathly quiet -- and he knew that there was almost no possible way he could be tracked. The computers would sense homing beacons immediately, and he could evade all sorts of scanners. And his ship could out-run any others with its powerful sublight engines and the fastest hyperspace engine possible.  
The navi-computer made a bleeping sound, letting Keth know that they were nearing Coruscant. He sat up and began fiddling with the controls, and then took the Wraith Hunter into normal space. The blue light disappeared, and the stars became specks again, and the planet of Coruscant began to appear in front of them. It was a large planet, with rings and specks of light dotting the surface. Depots and spaceports floated in Coruscant's orbit, which Keth passed as he entered the planet's artificially created atmosphere. No different than Nar Shadaa. Just more civilized... Keth thought to himself.  
"Greetings traveler, welcome to the capitol world of Coruscant!" A traffic control droid had contacted Keth's ship. "Please land on platform 1214!" it ordered. Keth flew past the traffic control tower and flew around the buildings to his assigned landing platform. He saw it and put his ship down on it, the ship using it's air jets to keep the ship hovering for a few seconds while the pilot put down the landing gear. Three mechanical legs appeared from the belly of the starship, and the Hunter had landed.  
Keth emerged from his starship. The nightlife of Coruscant was not very different from Nar Shadaa. Cantinas were crowded, the airspeeder lanes full of zooming ships, and lights were bright. Just another typical city planet. Keth took out his electrobinoculars and began surveying the horizon. He found what he was looking for.  
"Ah, there it is..." Keth said to himself.  
"There is what, Dad?" asked Brak.  
"The Hyperspace Nova Diner. The owner of the place is an old friend of mine, and he knows almost everyone and everything. He's a Siniteen, and an ex-smuggler. He can figure out hyperspace coordinates in his head," replied Keth.  
"Oh, you mean the Brainiac species, with the big heads and glazed reddish-yellow eyes?"  
"That would be them. My friend's name is...well; we just call him 'the Brain'. He should be able to tell us about our quarry and where they could possibly be staying..." Keth told Brak as he activated his jetpack. He grabbed his son by the waist and flew over to the Diner, landing outside the chain of buildings. They were dome-like buildings, with a ring of round windows going around the bottom. They each had a spire going up towards the sky, in which had another ring of windows. Near the top of the spire was a beacon-like bright blue flame. There were four buildings like this, all surrounding a fountain that spouted giant blue flames instead of water, which Keth had entitled the Flaming Fountain. They were also connected by bridges, which each had a few blue-flame lamps.  
Spacers and aliens and other people were walking around. A few landspeeders hovered around area. A man was snapping pictures of the nightlife with his holocam. Teenagers were zipping around on swoop bikes. A bearded man was running to greet another man. Beggars were sitting by the walls in piles of discarded junk. Skinheads were throwing empty alcohol containers into the Flaming Fountain. Yep, this was the nightlife.  
Keth and Brak entered diner, heading up the entrance ramp from beneath the closest building. He brushed past a few patrons of the cantina, and walked up to the bar. Sitting there was a bored humanoid; large of head, and with a lanky body. His glazed reddish-yellow eyes stared at the people walking around the bar. It was the Siniteen that Keth had told Brak about.  
"Hey, Brain!" called Keth. The Siniteen was startled, and nearly fell out of his chair. He then stood, with a height of about that of the average human.  
"Keth! Nice to see you old buddy!" said Brain in raspy voice. He shook Keth's hand. "You want the usual? A Flaming Wookiee with a Alderaanian cherry or two in it?"  
"Sure, I'll have the usual. But I'd also like some information regarding my latest quarry..." Keth whispered, not wanting too many people to know of his business.  
"Ah, I see..." Brain whispered, his voice sounding raspier and deeper. Brain quickly made the Flaming Wookiee and plopped two Alderaanian cherries in it, and handed it to Keth. He then turned to his bartender, a Rodian. "I'm taking a break, I'll be back in a few minutes!" he shouted to the Rodian, who nodded. Brain walked out of the bar and brought the two bounty hunters into his back office. He peeked out, looked both ways for any signs of people that might listen in on the conversation, and closed the door. He locked it, and then walk to his desk and sat down.  
"So, the great Keth Arthul needs some information, does he not?" asks Brain, with a sickly grin. Most Siniteens have a permanent sneer, so that is why his grin was not the best grin you could ever see. "What are you up to now? Big money by any chance?"  
"I've got a one million credit bounty on a man named Mon Tifoke. He's a Darkie. If I can pick off his associates as well, the bounty is raised to two million," answers Keth, passing Brain the holo-projector storing the message from Val'Tala about the bounty. Brain activated it and listened intently until the end of the message. He stared off into space for awhile, and then began talking about the whereabouts of Tifoke.  
"The information will cost you one thousand credits," he mutters. "I can wait until you get the bounty finished though, since we're good friends. Anyway, Tifoke is a powerful Dark Jedi. He was born on Corellia, and was found to be Force sensitive at the age of two-years-old. He was trained up to the rank of Jedi Knight, achieved at the age of twenty-one, and turned to the Dark-side after coming into too much contact with information in a Sith Holocron. He destroyed his own lightsaber, as the green blade was a symbol of Jedi authority. He made a new one, with a blade of yellow. He is currently here on Coruscant, most likely in the Belag District."  
"The Belag District!?" exclaimed Keth, not worrying about the amount of credits the information was costing him. "I know that area well. I lived there for awhile, if you remember. But why would he be in Belag?"  
"Because he has set up a base there. My Rodian bartender is also a spy, and an information broker. He works for me and gets twenty-five percent of the informational payment fee, as well as credits for working in the bar out there. But that's besides the point! The point is, he spotted pirates setting up a base in the lower levels of Belag while visiting his family down there. He spotted a man in flowing black robes, walking out of an obviously stolen Republic airbus. The base is in an abandoned hangar, made back when the lower levels were the top levels. It is also connected to the buildings around it, and no doubt the pirates are expanding it for their dark leader," Brain explained. He then showed Keth a symbol on a computer screen:  
"This is the pirate's symbol. It looks somewhat like a maze, if you ask me!" declared the Siniteen.  
"I see...thank you for your time Brain," replied Keth, motioning for Brak to leave with him. "I'll give you the credits as soon as I bring in the bounty!"  
"Alright then. Be careful, and don't get yourself killed! I want my payment!" chuckled Brain, waving from his desk.  
Keth and Brak were soon back in the night air. There were more people, but Keth noticed they were all going in one direction. Some people were screaming, some looking in wonder, some looking in fear. Nonetheless, they were all looking at one thing: a Krayt dragon. A Krayt dragon had been let loose on Coruscant.  
"Look, Dad, the symbol of the pirates!" Brak shouted, pointing to a now empty transport. A landspeeder had collided with the hovering transport, and it had startled the Krayt dragon, and it ripped out of its large cage. It had ripped through the metal door savagely, and had right away began killing people. On the shredded cage, the symbol of the pirates was painted in blood red on the side of it. The pirates had been smuggling the rancor onto the planet and into the Belag District for their use and entertainment!  
"We've got to get past that dragon. It isn't our problem, it's the Republic's. We should go see if the landspeeder pilot is still alive. If he is, we'll shoot to stun, and we'll take the pirate back to the Wraith Hunter," plans Keth, talking to Brak. "You got that?"  
"Got it," answers Brak, removing a blaster pistol from his belt. They then charged towards the screaming crowd, into the crowd, and towards the landspeeder. It wasn't until they got to the pirate landspeeder that the Krayt dragon spotted them. With a resounding roar, it reached out with a massive claw, and attempted to grab at the bounty hunters. Brak ran and jumped out of the Krayt's grasp, and ducked on the other side of the crashed speeder. Keth kept running and began shooting off his rifle at the Krayt's face.  
The Krayt screamed in outrage, clawing the air around Keth. Keth bent down and aimed with his jetpack, and launched a missile. The rocket flew fast and hard, and collide with the monster's nose. It began making a sneezing sound, and roaring in anguish. It charged at Keth, who jumped out of the way with the aid of his jetpack. Keth fired a wrist rocket from his wristband gauntlet, and miniature explosive hitting the dragon's back. The Krayt squealed again, and turned around. It dashed for the Kidarian again, but Keth threw a round object into the beast's mouth, and ducked under it. He was tumbled along, but quickly got out of the way. A few seconds later, the giant lizard was ripped in half by an explosion from the inside.  
"How'd you do that Dad?" asked Brak, who had been busy getting the pirate out of the landspeeder crash.  
"I popped a grenade in it's mouth. It's the oldest trick in the book!" exclaimed Keth. Keth grabbed the pirate by the waist and boosted up to the Wraith Hunter's platform. He put the unconscious pirate in the back seat, and started the ship. He piloted the ship down to the wrecked speeders, where Brak had started fighting another pirate that had climbed out of the wreck. Brak shot the man and climbed into he Wraith Hunter once it had landed, and then sat in the seat behind his father. Behind Brak's seat was the pirate, who was just coming to.  
Keth shut the window and piloted towards the Belag District. He flew through the sky over the tall buildings and large mechanical canyons. He zipped through the sky over Monument Plaza, soared like a hawkbat over Monument Park, and zoomed speedily past the Jedi Temple. It's good to be back on Coruscant, Keth thought to himself. The buildings and skyscrapers gleamed like jewels in the just rising sun. It was a new day on Coruscant.  
Soon Keth had arrived in the Belag District. A traffic control droid contacted the ship and ordered him to put the ship down in landing bay 1138. He obeyed and landed the ship in the underground landing bays. He got out of the ship and dragged the groggy pirate to a bench near the exit to the private landing bay, and began to question him.  
"Okay, you're going to tell me the exact location of Mon Tifoke's base, you understand?" ordered Keth, shaking the man by the scruff of his neck.  
"I don't know nothin!" shouted the man, his eyes going wide with fright.  
"You'll tell me or I'll cast you into the Flaming Fountain back at the Hyperspace Nova Diner! Or even worse, I'll tell the authorities about the Krayt dragon you were smuggling from Tatooine to your boss..."  
"Okay, okay, I'll lead you there! It is not far from here, since you are headed to the Belag District..."  
"We're in the Belag District..."  
"Yes, I knew that, I really did. Anyway, I'll lead you to my boss's lair. Just don't kill me!" yelped the pirate.  
They emerged from the underground bay, and began walking around the empty platforms. Keth noticed the difference between the night life and the day time. There were almost no people, and very few policemen. They took a lift down to the lower levels. The pirate took them very far down, down almost to the planet's ancient surface. The surface that no one ever saw. Soon they stopped, probably only a few miles from the surface. The lift would not go any farther, because the rest of the lift had been destroyed by stone mites. Ancient walls of flimsy metal were rusted and rotting, and old wires were laying around like thin rubber snakes.  
A rusted door sat in the way, obviously tinkered with and renewed. The pirate opened it, and led them to another lift. It took them a few levels upwards, and they stopped on a black walkway, cleaned and waxed to give it a brilliant sheen. There was no junk or old wires were on the walkway, and the old walls and guardrails had been removed and replaced by stronger, newer ones. Soon they came to a hangar, in which was an airbus, modified to have laser cannons and a new coat of black paint. On the side was the pirate's symbol in yellow. Besides the Arthuls, their hostage, and the airbus, there was nobody and nothing inside the hangar.  
Suddenly, a laser bolt soared from up above and hit the pirate. He stumbled back, and toppled off the edge of the walkway. Keth didn't even hear him hit the bottom, but that was probably because a roar of laser fire that had began rushing at him. Pirates were flooding out from all of the lower doorways on Keth's floor. They all had blasters, or vibro-blades, or anything that could cause Keth and Brak to be blasted, incinerated, or diced. 


	3. The Fight in the Hangar

Chapter 3: The Fight in the Hangar  
  
Keth grabbed Brak, and jumped into the air with his jetpack. He flew over to the far corner of the room, and set Brak down next to a door.  
"I want you to shoot all pirates that come out of these doors up here," said Keth. "I'll have my hands full down there, so wish me luck and cover me!" Keth then jumped down towards the pirates, his twin pistols in his hands, and opened fire on the pirates. He swerved and dodged swings from vibro-axes and shots from blasters. He downed man after man, pirate after pirate, and used his reflexes in extraordinary ways. The whole time he was thinking back to his training in the Jedi Temple. Dodge, shoot, dodge, jump, shoot, shoot, shoot, dodge... Keth thought to himself, then acting it out.  
Above him, Brak had been attacked. He used his blaster pistol, shooting at door panels and pipes and pirates. He shot a pipe and it began leaking gases...flammable gases. He shot the same pipe again and it exploded, hurling a few pirates over the edge of the railing or into walls. Brak himself had been knocked down momentarily, and a large pirate was towering over him. He was about to swing down a large axe, but Brak shot him. The pirate toppled over and slumped against the wall, his axe landing with a ching! in the floor next to Brak's head.  
Brak did not see the Nikto with a sniper rifle heading to the edge of the railing, shouting orders to the pirates. The Nikto was now aiming at Keth as Brak fought against the overwhelming odds, and Keth punched and shot pirates. The Nikto opened fire, and a laser flew from the barrel. The laser hit it's mark, and landed with a flash in Keth's chest. Keth was knocked back and landed on the ground. Brak stared in fear and amazement, and picked up another pistol.  
"NOOOO!!!" he shouted, blasting numerous holes in the oncoming pirates. They all toppled over, and began charging towards the Nikto. "You shot him! You stupid pirate!"  
"What the..." gasped the Nikto, who turned and made a wild shot with his sniper rifle. The shot went wide, and instead hit a pirate behind Brak. The young bounty hunter began shooting at the Nikto, but missed and hit a large box-shaped panel on the underside of the walkway. The shots had gone through the weak floor of the walkway, and now the box sparked and fizzled. The walkway began to move, and swung to the other side of the hangar, connecting with another walkway. Pirates began marching over from the opposite walkway. I won't let this stop me! thought Brak, and began shooting at the Nikto again. The Nikto was hit, and Brak fire again and again and again until the Nikto was a smoking pile of ashes. He then turned his attention back to the other pirates around him.  
The Nikto he had just vaporized was on Val'Tala's bounty list: Doc- Far, the Nikto hit man. Brak had eliminated him, and now the bounty payment would be raised if Tifoke were to be eliminated.  
Meanwhile, Keth began to stand. His thick Kidarian battle armor had saved his life. There was now a big smoking pockmark his chest, and a little bit of stinging pain, but nothing seriously painful. Around him were a number of pirates. Closest to him was a man in black robes, and red hair.  
"Mon Tifoke..." Keth muttered. "So we meet."  
"Yes, that's my name, don't wear it out," said the Dark Jedi, smiling menacingly.  
"I have a bounty on your head, for one million credits. You stole equipment and money from a depot on Nar Shaddaa. Not very wise, if you ask me," explained Keth, his voice more menacing than Tifoke's smile since it was coming through the helmet's synthesizers.  
"I didn't ask you, did I?" countered Mon. "Plus, I don't think you'll manage to get that bounty. You'll be dead momentarily..." Mon brought his lightsaber out, and ignited it. The yellow blade shown brilliantly in the dim lighting of the hangar. He swung it around in a form of solute. Keth dodged, and quickly rolled a thermal detonator onto the ground silently. Tifoke noticed it, and used the Force to jump to a walkway overhead. Keth powered up his jetpack and followed him. The pirates that had surrounded them were incinerated in a large blast that came from the thermal detonator. The explosion even destroyed the platform the walkway out in front of the hangar.  
Brak noticed his father was still alive, and still fighting as swift as ever. Brak was being overwhelmed though, and soon he was stunned by a stun gun. A Gotal pirate lifted a smoking stun gun to his mouth and blew off the smoke. Brak fell with a clatter and they dragged him away in stun cuffs.  
"Brak? Brak!" Keth called to his son, seeing him be shot, though he did not know it was only a stun gun. He's dead...Tifoke's about to pay. He then flattened himself on the ground and rolled over as Tifoke slashed through the floor, breaking numerous pipes and wires. Mon Tifoke was fighting very well, almost too well. Keth continued to dodge, and when he opened fire, Mon just deflected them. Finally, Keth holstered his blaster rifle and blaster pistols and picked up a vibro-ax. He jumped over Mon Tifoke, avoiding numerous spinning slashes, and delivered a powerful blow. Mon Tifoke's hand was severed, and dropped to the floor, still holding the yellow-bladed lightsaber. Keth called it to his hand, recalling how to pull on things with the Force momentarily.  
"Ow, you nerfherding punk!" screeched Tifoke, grabbing his stub of a hand. "You don't even know how to use a lightsaber, so mine will do you little good!" Mon Tifoke pulled a disruptor rifle off of the ground and charged it up. "Let's see if you can deflect this!" he shouted maniacally, and fired.  
Keth swung hard, and miraculously deflected the shot. The green disruptor laser, with a fizzling sound, hit Tifoke in the stomach. Tifoke only had a second to shudder in pain, and then disappeared in a flash of greenish-orange light. The disruptor had been charged up by Tifoke, and when a charged shot hits its mark, the victim is instantly vaporized and vanishes.  
Keth looked at the lightsaber in amazement, and then looked at pirates surrounding him. I'm gonna need this, thought the bounty hunter, and slashed at one before dropping another thermal detonator. Using his jetpack he jetted out of the hangar as another explosion rocked him and threw pirates and debris from the hangar. He then jetted up as far as he could go to the Wraith Hunter, and stopped on a walkway nearby. He entered the landing bay, and a few seconds later, the Hunter ripped out of there. Keth put the ship on full throttle, and flew to the hangar. He stopped outside, where a number of pirates were still recovering from the explosions. Two pirates, a Wookiee and a man in battle armor like Keth's, pointed to the ship. The battle armored pirate grabbed the Wookiee, who growled, and jetted away with rockets on his boots.  
"Say your prayers, pirates!" hollered Keth, who had opened the cockpit window. He targeted the hangar, and began launching all of his enhanced proton torpedoes inside. There was a bright glow of blue light in the hangar, and then a massive explosion. Flames and warped metal spouted from the hangar, and everything inside was incinerated in the blast.  
Brak, though Keth thought him dead, was safely stored inside a prison cell. The thick doors and walls protected him from the incinerating explosions of Keth's torps, but the pirates on the outside of the thick walls and doors were knocked head over heels by the force of the blast.  
"See ya later suckers! There's my revenge and my bounty!" Keth called to the pirates, though he knew they could not hear him over the deafening blast or if they were dead. 


	4. Three and a Half Months Later

Chapter 4: Three-and-a-Half Months Later....  
  
"Carefully..." Keth muttered to himself. He was aiming steadily with his sniper rifle at a blonde-haired woman in gold trimmed, blue robes, who was an official of the planet Onveska in the Outer Rim that was meeting with the Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. She was going to make Onveska part of the Republic in return for the Republic forces heading to the desolate planet to wipe out the pirate raids. A crime lord named Nageth the Hutt had hired Keth to take out the official of Onveska. He didn't say why, but Keth still needed money, having not retrieved his payment from Val'Tala due to the fact that he had gone on a vacation to Cloud City on Bespin to get away from business. Keth would be paid five thousand credits if he pulled off the job successfully.  
Keth locked onto the official, aiming carefully, and fired. A few seconds later, the official of Onveska had an poisonous dart in her neck, and Keth was being pursued by Senate guards and Royal guards. The blue- and red-robed soldiers were pursuing him quickly, firing high-powered rifles at him. One Royal guard through his force pike like a javelin, and nearly hit Keth. Keth had been running, but then jumped off the side of the skyscraper he had been sniping from. He plummeted for about a minute before using his jetpack to stop him, and he headed upwards a few yards and stopped once he saw his get away: a Republic speeder bike. He hopped on, and sped away on the landspeeder roads.  
Soon Senate guards had rappelled down and manned the other speeder bikes, and were chasing after him. The cannons on the underside of their bikes opened fire. Blue and green lasers exploded all around Keth as he avoided them all. But one guard aimed his rifle and hit Keth's jetpack. The jetpack sputtered and stop humming, and died. Keth knew this, but he had another plan. He pressed the bike to go as fast as possible, and then tore into an outdoor nightclub. He opened fire twice, destroying a section of the railing on the edge of the club, and flew off the building. His speederbike began to plummet downwards at a dangerous speed, and a Senate guard accidentally followed him, screaming in fright.  
Keth took a small remote from his belt, and pressed a few buttons. The Wraith Hunter came tearing around a corner. Keth let go of the plummeting speeder bike, which exploded on the side of a building, and the auto-pilot of the Hunter put the ship directly under him. Keth pressed more buttons on the remote, and the cockpit hatch opened. He pressed another button, and the ship stopped and he landed in his chair. He closed the hatch and took off, and the Senate guard that had pursued him fell until he hit the ground on the building below.  
Keth was soon pursued by two Republic patrol airspeeders. They opened fire on his fighter, but all attempts to hit him were futile, and he ended up frying one of them with the rear laser cannon. Keth pulled into an empty airspeeder tunnel in the side of a building, and powered down the ship. The patrol airspeeder sped past, scanning the area for him but not finding him.  
"Phew, that was close!" sighed Keth, taking off his helmet and wiping his brow with a handkerchief. Indeed, it was. Senate guards are not soldiers you want on your tail, no matter what the circumstance. Well, at least I'll get the bounty money, thought Keth. This also would have been much easier with Brak...  
"Move it, cripple!" came a shout from below the ship. Keth looked down to see a group of pirates, all armed, escorting a group of slaves and hostages to a transport. The cripple was being pushed out of the way, but it flung open it's tattered cloak and opened fire with a plasma rifle, puncturing a few of the pirates. Keth looked down at the erupting battle below him, and noticed something about the two leading the pirates with hostages: one was in a beat-up suit of armor, and the other was a brownish- red-haired Wookiee. He recognized them as pirates of Mon Tifoke's men, the two that he had seen before incinerating the hangar that Tifoke had set up base in. Then Keth looked to the transport, into which a few hostages were being escort, and saw a familiar symbol on the side of it. It was the maze- like symbol of the pirates.  
Keth leapt from the Wraith Hunter, twirling out his twin pistols. One pirate, hiding behind a hostage, looked up just in time to be scorched by a hail of lasers. Keth then, using the Force, jumped up and kicked a pirate in the face. When the hunter landed, he began emptying the pistols' gas cartridges on the pirates. Most pirates were wearing armor marked with their symbol, but he noticed another symbol painted in teal out of all of those. It looked somewhat like a starfish from Mon Calamari, with three legs swirling out.  
It belonged to another pirate clan that he was somewhat familiar with, called the Anyota. The Anyota were humanoids with blue-gray skin, and were from a planet in the Outer Rim of the same name. All of the men of the Anyota joined the pirate clan, which was really a large army that had been spread throughout the galaxy. The Anyota were also great friends to the Kidarians, and Kidaria was only a short hyperspace jump away from Anyota. Keth was a Kidarian. The fighter was an Anyota.  
Only one Anyota had started the fighting, and only one Anyota was fighting still. His plasma blaster was blazing, punching holes in the pirates. Suddenly, the blazing rifle stopped. The Anyota checked his cartridge only to find that it was empty. He did not have any spares, and looked in fear to the ten pirates still surrounding him. Soon there were only eight, then only six, then only four, as Keth picked them off with his rifle.  
Over by the transport, a pirate had been killing the hostages. He was down to the last one. Keth recognized the prisoner and almost dropped his gun. He tossed his rifle to the grateful Anyota, who finished off the last three pirates, and whipped out his lightsaber. The yellow blade flashed into view, and with a decisive twirl, the pirate was dispatched, sliced in half at the torso. Keth then put away his saber, and picked up the young boy that was the last prisoner. It was Brak Arthul, Keth's son and partner in crime. The boy was beat up and dirty, and he had a fat lip.  
"Brak!" gasped Keth, locking his son in a hug. The boy smiled weakly.  
"Long time no see, Dad," said Brak, wiping some blood from his lip. "What took ya?"  
"Let's just say I've had some minor difficulties finding you and business to attend to..." laughed Keth. Keth then handed his son a med- pack. "And, I thought you had been killed. Now clean yourself up with this!"  
"Well, I'll tell why I'm not dead, Dad, but maybe later," replied Brak, cleaning a small gash on his shin with a bacta container. "By the way, my armor and weapons are in the transport. I'll get it on after I'm done with this."  
Keth looked at his son and grinned under his helmet. I thought he was dead, but he's not! thought Keth gleefully. Then he saw a ship taking off. On board, he could see the armored bounty hunter and the Wookiee. Suddenly, he felt a large, gloved hand on his shoulder. It was the Anyota.  
"You saved my life Kidarian," said the Anyota. "I am in your debt!"  
"What was all this? An everyday skirmish? And who are you?" asked Keth, turning to the Anyota.  
"No. We, the Anyota, have declared war on this pirate clan. They have been stealing our supply shipment from Anyota, and pestering our warriors, killing our families, destroying our homes, and so on. The war has begun here on Coruscant, and we are fighting them openly for the first time in the Belag District. The battle will be occurring shortly. And I am General Falece Ne'dan!"  
"A General? Why would you be attacking a convoy of prisoners?" questioned Keth.  
"The prisoners were mostly Anyota soldiers. As you can see..." General Ne'dan gestured to the fallen men, "...none of them lived this little skirmish. And one of them was a General himself, a man called Kareem Hyj'tar. But now his part of the Anyota army will not fight, for we have no generals that would be able to lead the great fraction of the army...wait a second..."  
The look of someone who had just come up with a wonderful idea passed over Ne'dan's face. "I know how to repay you for saving me! You seem like a natural fighter, so why don't you lead the Hyj'tar army into battle!"  
"Me, leading an army! I'm a bounty hunter! I'd rather be fighting another Krayt dragon..." muttered Keth.  
"You'll be paid for your duties..." Ne'dan offered. 


	5. The Battle of the Belag District

Chapter 5: The Battle of the Belag District  
  
A group of pirates were sitting in a dark corner of a warehouse. They sat at a circular table with a deck of cards in the center.  
"How about a game of Sabacc?" asked the dealer, who had just finished shuffling the cards and had put them where they currently were.  
"Yeah, alright. What version?" another pirate spoke up.  
"How about the Dune Sea way? The Jawas of Tatooine play it a lot," said another.  
The pirates kept talking amongst themselves about which type of Sabacc they would play, when a pong! rang out, and a laser bolt hit the deck of cards. The cards were sent in every direction, and the dealer tried to grab some while more shots hit the table and the other pirates. Soon they were all down on the floor, wincing in anguish. Then they saw a thermal detonator fly through the air and land on the table. The dealer desperately tried to reach up to grab it and throw it away. But then it exploded, incinerating everything in range.  
As the blast shattered the section of the building, a group of shadows scuttled away. The black clad Anyota soldiers were jumping from wall to wall, up fire escapes and down them. Leading them was Keth Arthul, General Keth Arthul, flying by jetpack, which Ne'dan had repaired. He had his blaster rifle out, cradling it in his arms.  
Soon they came to the location of the army of Ne'dan. Ne'dan stood at the head of the army, clad in thicker battle armor for the intense fight that would ensue from Keth's thermal detonator destroying part of the pirate's warehouse.  
"Did it go as planned?" asked the General as Keth set himself down next to him.  
"Perfectly. The warehouse has been blasted to pieces," proclaimed Keth.  
"Good. The fight will begin shortly then..." said Ne'dan.  
The Ne'dan army and newly named Arthul army began marching to the site of the battle. Another small group had been assigned by another part of the Anyota army to harass the pirates and plant a few plasma bombs. If the routine worked, the pirates would become outnumbered. As Ne'dan and Keth's men approached the make-shift battlefield, bright flashes and explosions were set off, and laser bolts flew, bouncing off the walls and exploding. Through the smoke and flak, the sensor in Keth's helmet gave him notice of a group of pirates.  
"On my mark..." ordered Keth, jumping onto his speederbike.  
The pirates began charging towards Keth's men as Ne'dan's men separated and ran through the alleys to attack the pirates from behind. They had an array of weapons, ranging from blasters to axes. Some were shouting battle cries, others were already shooting.  
"Steady..." called Keth. "And...NOW!" The soldiers raised their plasma rifles and opened fire. The oncoming pirates fell, and others tripped over their bodies, causing confusion. Keth shot forward on his speeder bike, opening fire with the double blaster cannons. Pirates tried to dodge out of the way, but most were run over or vaporized. Keth brought out the repeater that Ne'dan had given him, and began blasting other pirates around him. He had left most of his men behind him, but they were still battling the pirates around them. Keth had given them a battle plan, and had left his son in charge of the Arthul army.  
Suddenly, a thick laser beam hit the metal ground next to Keth's speeder bike, causing the speeder bike to rock violently. He sped out of the way, and pulled into an alley. He hid his speeder bike in an empty dumpster, and began climbing the fire escape of the building the laser had come from. He climbed quickly, and soon he was on top. He stopped at the top of the ladder, and peered over the edge of the building. He saw numerous guards surrounding a single ship. The ship had a quad turret in the back, which must have also been the passenger area and where the blast had come from. Stepping out of the ship was the armored bounty hunter and the Wookiee. Those must be Baret Nuor and Krrathor, thought Keth. The last two on the bounty list. He then snuck the barrel of his sniper rifle over the edge of the building, and opened fire.  
While had intended to shoot Baret, he only hit a guard. Baret had seen the shot coming, and had dodged out of the way. Soon he was right on top of Keth, and he grabbed Keth by the shoulders and yanked him up onto the building. He then delivered a solid punch to Keth's stomach. Keth was knocked back, dropping his sniper rifle and repeater to the alleyway below. They shattered as they hit the ground.  
Keth brought out his lightsaber. The yellow blade ignited, and he slashed at Baret. The other hunter ducked under the swing, punched Keth in the stomach again. Once again, Keth was on the verge of falling into the alleyway. Suddenly he was hurled backwards and onto the side of the opposite building. Pirates had powered up the quad on the airspeeder, and explosions were bursting around Keth's falling body.  
Quickly, Keth powered up his jet pack and soared upwards, his pistols blazing. A few shots thudded against Baret's thick armor, and the hunter stumbled backwards. Keth began firing some more, and hit numerous pirates surrounding the ship. The quads continued firing up at Keth as he soared overhead. He dropped a grenade or two down to the pirates, which tried to dash out of the way or kick the grenades. The explosion engulfed them, and sent them flying over the edge and into the raging battle below.  
Brak was busy shooting up pirates with his pistol. The bolts exploded on pirates and their equipment and their armor. The plasma rifles of the Anyota soldiers were blazing, sending blue and purple shots into the pirates, countering the red and green lasers flying at them. Few Anyota were falling. Seeing this, Brak gave the order for them to advance and for the mounted soldiers to jet forward on their speeder bikes. The bikes roared and zipped through the pirates, cannons blazing. The foot soldiers in the front line unsheathed strong swords made from a mixture of steel and cortosis, and were skillfully cutting down pirates and dodging laser bolts. One Anyota even threw his sword, which stuck in a Gran pirate.  
On the roof of the building, Keth was blasting pirates from the ground, and raced up the ramp of the airspeeder. He began blasting the controls and the pirates on board, and shot a pipe on the quad. The quads tried to shoot, but when the heat mixed with the chemicals and gases in the damaged pipe, the quads sent a fiery explosion rolling over the deck of the airspeeder and almost killing Keth. The rest of the ship went up in flames.  
Keth landed the ground as he dived away from the burning ship, and was met with a strong, furry fist. Krrathor the Wookiee, a might warrior, sent the Kidarian hunter reeling backwards. Keth thought he had been bashed with a mace or stun baton, and almost fainted. But he kept his consciousness, and tried to aim a shot at the Wookiee. But before he could squeeze off a shot, the Wookiee grabbed Keth's wrist. He twisted until Keth dropped his pistol, and then pulled a Ryyk blade from a sheath on his back. He swung hard at Keth's wrist, but the Kidarian brought out his other pistol and shot Krrathor's hand.  
The Wookiee howled in rage as he released his bone-crushing grip on Keth's hand. He swung violently at the hunter with the Ryyk, but Keth dodged again and again. The blade hit other pirates and the metallic ground, causing blood to be drawn and sparks to fly. Krrathor delivered an especially strong swing to the right. Keth speedily ducked and went through the Wookiee's hairy legs. He grabbed the dirty brownish-red hair on the back of Krrathor's head and pulled, then kicked him in the back. Krrathor roared in pain and tried to stumble forward. He tripped over a dead pirate, falling face first onto the cold ground. There was a sickening splurt! and the Wookiee went limp. Keth turned the body over with his foot and saw that Krrathor had fallen on his Ryyk blade. Keth turned away from the gruesome sight, as a pool of blood surrounded the fallen warrior. 


	6. In the Warehouse

Chapter 6: in the Warehouse  
  
Explosions were erupting around Brak. Chaos is a big factor in this battle, thought Brak as soldiers tripped over each other. Even the Anyota troops were confused, blinded by intense explosions and knocked over by the torrent of laser fire. It was the same for the pirates, though to a much higher degree. The plasma guns were ripping through them like paper drenched with gasoline and lit with a match.  
Brak was keeping low to the ground, shooting at the pirates with his pistol and a plasma blaster he had picked up. An Anyota threw a grenade into the pirate crowd, sending the thugs thudding against walls and through windows and onto the ground. An Aqualish pirate reared up over Brak, wielding a heavy vibro-ax. Brak lifted his guns, a Buch-9 pistol and a Buch-7, and fried the pirate, who dropped the ax on a Aleena pirate behind him.  
Suddenly, Brak was grabbed by the throat and lifted up, up, and away from the battle. Below him he saw the mess that had once been an organized battle. Lifting off the ground by his neck was Baret Nuor, a feared bounty hunter, and the last person on Val'Tala's bounty list.  
"Let's see your father save you now!" yelled the infuriated hunter. Brak examined Baret's armor and spotted several blast marks. Dad, where are you? I'd like you to make more of these blast marks in him! Brak shouted in his head. Then Baret, using his amazing brute strength, hurled Brak through a window and into the damaged warehouse that Keth's strike team had blown up shortly before the battle.  
Brak hit a crate on his way in. The crate shattered, and Brak was being buried in glitterstim spice from Kessel. Baret dashed in and quickly lifted Brak from the mounds of spice. He pulled off Brak's Kidarian helmet and sent it smashing through a window. Surprisingly, it was thrown back, and hit Baret in the back. The spikes on the helmet pierced the armor, as did a few laser bolts. Then Keth, his jetpack roaring, kicked Baret in the back of the head, throwing him off balance. Baret stumbled into the growing mounds of glitterstim spice. He came to his senses as Keth hit him on the side of the head with a mace he had picked up from a pirate he had knocked out on the way in. It cracked the hunter's helmet, and shattered the visor.  
Keth began to swing again, but Baret lifted his pistol from beneath the mounds of spice as his head was covered. He opened fire repeatedly at Keth's chest. The bolts exploded on Keth's armor, but even that was not enough to stop the Kidarian bounty hunter. Even while being blasted, he lit his lightsaber and slashed down on Baret's blaster, chopping it in half. Then, using his developed Force skills, he lifted Baret from the spice. Baret's hand went to his throat as his neck began to feel constricted. He clawed at his armor, and gagging, and trying to breath...  
When Keth released him.  
Baret landed in the spice again. He struggled to get out of the torrent, but Keth had other plans. Keth aimed quickly and shot his grappling rope into a hook on the top of the crate. With all of his might, he pulled the crate's wall down, sending the rest of the spice pounding down on Baret. Baret reached out with one last effort to grab a pole on a nearby, inactive loader droid, but the spice buried him, crushing him. As the spice finished pouring, all that could be seen of Baret was his fingers, wrapped around the pole. Then he released his grip, and the fingers relaxed. The last person on Val'Tala's bounty list had been eliminated. 


	7. The Jedi

Chapter 7: The Jedi  
  
Keth and Brak emerged from a battered doorway of the warehouse. A few pirates were to their left, and Keth simply deflected their laser bolts with his lightsaber. Then they ran in the opposite direction, toward General Ne'dan's outpost, where Ne'dan and a few other soldiers awaited them.  
Down on the battlefield, the fight was almost over. The Anyota had gotten a hold of themselves during the battle, and were finishing off the pirates. Tripods had been set up, and were blowing away pirates quicker than the plasma rifles and the Anyota swords. Then, like a huge wave, the Anyota troops all threw grenades. With several boom!s and many fiery explosions, remaining pirates were thrown to the ground. The soldiers cheered, and held their fists and guns up in the air in victory.  
Suddenly, there was a blast that hit one of the buildings around the soldiers. They all looked up to see several police troop ships lowering into the area. Keth and Brak saw them land, and froze in place.  
"This is not good," muttered Keth. He took out his electrobinoculars and looked at the Republic ship. He spotted several Senate guards, heavily armed policemen, and Jedi Knights. Two Jedi on each ship. Green and blue lightsabers began igniting in the battlefield, and Anyota soldiers were being sliced in half and hacked. By the time the sabers stopped igniting, Keth had counted ten Jedi. They were quickly slicing through the ranks of Anyota.  
Keth thought fast. Pulling a flare gun from his belt, he loaded it with a white flare, and shot it up into the sky. The white flare signaled a retreat, and the Anyota halted their faltering flow of firepower, and ran as fast as they could in the opposite direction of the Jedi and troops. The Jedi did not pursue, but the police brought out riot guns and set up tripods, blasting the fleeing soldiers. A soldier on a speeder bike zipped out from behind the landed troopships, and blasted a few police and Senate guards. He attempted to pass by a black Jedi Master, but the warrior caught him with a hard swing of his purple blade, decapitating him. The Jedi then powered down his lightsaber.  
Keth followed the retreating soldiers. He grabbed Brak and powered up his jetpack, and shot off into the night. Soon they were pursued by a troopship, which was blasting away at the flying hunter with two turbolasers. Keth dodged and dodged and dodged, and flew around a building. The troopship fired a missile from underneath it hull, and it exploded a little too close for comfort. Keth had to land.  
"But we're not close enough to the Wraith Hunter!," Brak complained. "We'll never make it on foot!"  
"Oh yes we will!" reprimanded Keth. "If the Jedi come after us, I'll ambush them."  
An explosion rocked the dusty buildings around them, caused by the turbolasers of the troopship. It came soaring down and slowed a bit, coming even with the floor the Kidarian bounty hunters were on. A Zabrak Jedi Padawan leaped from the open door of the ship, igniting his blue lightsaber.  
"Run!" shouted Keth, pushing Brak away from him. As soon as he saw Brak run into a dark doorway and out of sight, he twirled out his blaster pistol and blasted away with a repeated pa-ping! pa-ping! pa-ping!  
The Jedi began deflecting the bolts away from him, but no where in particular. He slashed at Keth's feet, but Keth activated his jet pack and flew out of the open hallway they were in. He soared up to the side of a building, where he was met with the pounding turbolasers. He was flung away and landed another floor down from the Jedi, in a pile of scrap metal. Keth stumbled to his feet and saw the troopship coming. It fired another missile, and he ran for his life. The missile exploded, sending debris everywhere. Metal, concrete, and glass hit Keth like shrapnel, piercing the open spots in his armor. It bit his skin like the bite of a poisonous Araz snake, but if Keth stopped running, he'd be fried.  
The turbolasers fired again, the green lasers exploding behind Keth. Using the aid of the Force, he ran faster. And faster. And faster. His lungs were bursting, his skin stinging from the shrapnel, his ears filled with the sound of blasts and low-pitched lasers. Finally he dived through an open and rusted doorway, the blasts just missing him.  
He pulled off his helmet and dabbed his forehead with his handkerchief. He plopped down in a torn-up sofa, taking off his jetpack and laying in silence. He holstered his pistol and instead held his rifle in both hands. He began to doze off to sleep...  
Schwizz! A blue lightsaber ignited and swung. Keth pulled his legs up and the end of the sofa was diced. The hunter sat up and pulled the trigger on his rifle. The bolts went bouncing around the room, deflected by the Jedi and hitting mirrors and dressers and desks. Finally, the Padawan missed a few bolts, which sizzled three holes in his chest. The Jedi fell, his face twisting in anguish. Keth called the Jedi's lightsaber to his hand, and ran from the room. He reached the door and threw in a grenade. The Jedi used the Force to hurled it back out and blew up in Keth's face.  
Keth was thrown over the edge of railing, and was hurtling downwards towards the surface. He reached to activate his jetpack, but couldn't find the button. I took it off when I rested! I'm such an idiot! he thought to himself. Grabbing at a flagpole, Keth managed to grab a torn-up blue and red flag. There was two chings! The flag was ripped off of the flagpole, and Keth was falling again. He madly pressed buttons on his gauntlets. Flamethrowers, scanners, and miniature lasers began activating, and he finally hit the right button: his grappling hook. It shot upwards, and snagged on...the troopship's starboard turbolaser. It had picked up the wounded Jedi and was heading down for Keth. Damn! he cursed to himself. He reached over with the grappling hook hand and activated his second grappling line, which snagged on a floor a few feet above him. He dangled there, like a fly caught in a spider's web, as another troopship soared towards him, firing two missiles.  
Keth called the yellow lightsaber to his hand, and cut the cord hooked to the troopship above him. He swung and hit the side of the building, almost dropping his lightsaber. The troopships almost collided behind him as he hoisted himself up the side of the building with the strong steel cord. Soon he was up again, dashing away. He decided he'd call his ship to him with the ship caller. He reached for it, but...it wasn't there. It must have fallen when I hit the side of the building! In fact, everything in the pouch that the caller had been in was gone. He'd just have to run.  
As he ran, the two troopships were firing at him. The one with the Jedi in it flew sideways, the front of the ship facing Keth, firing missiles. The other troopship flew forward with its side to the building. It fired its turbolasers and the troopers inside fired rifles. Everything around Keth was becoming a great big fireball. Bolts were whizzing by his face and hitting the wall next to him, sending smoke and flame and debris flying in his view. Behind him rockets exploded and cannon fire blasted at the walls, which began to crumble. And running space was running out, and Keth almost ran off the edge of the building. Then another rocket exploded behind him and hurled him sideways, into a lift. He quickly hit the number of the floor he had been resting on. 


	8. The Duel with Shathur

Chapter 8: The Duel with Shathur  
  
Keth had grabbed his jetpack and took the lift up to Brak's floor. He found Brak hiding in a cabinet in an abandoned apartment, or a room that had been made into an apartment.  
"Wow, Dad, you're not fried!" Brak exclaimed, astonished.  
"It wasn't easy, Brak," gasped Keth. "Trust me on that."  
Soon they were on the move again. The troopships had lost track of Keth and Brak, and had gone off to join the rest of the ships. They walked a little ways and then rested (for Keth's sake), and then took off by jetpack. The jetpack hummed and spouted flames through the nozzles, lifting Keth and Brak to the top of a tall building. They landed through an open skylight, and walked along a rickety metal catwalk. Below them the buildings stood as black monoliths, featureless in this dark hour. The long catwalk crossed over two other buildings before leading to the large landing platform atop an old skyscraper, once used as a bacta storage warehouse.  
Sitting in the far corner, in the shadows, was the Wraith Hunter. It had been moved from its original landing place in Ne'dan's outpost to ensure it was not destroyed. But there was no sign of an Anyota anywhere...  
"I have a bad feeling about this," muttered Keth. He could sense something out of place here, and an urge of nearby danger. "Brak, get in the ship. And prepare to use your pistols," ordered Keth, pointing in the direction of the ship. Brak quickly obeyed, but did not get in the ship. Instead, he crouched by it, pistols pointing to the sky.  
Then a shadowy figure walked out towards Keth. It was robed, with a hood on.  
"You are in trouble, bounty hunter," said the figure passively, in a low voice. "Killing a senator is a serious crime, and injuring a Jedi is another."  
"What is your proof that I did it? There are plenty of bounty hunters on Coruscant that could have done it," countered Keth. "Who are you anyway?"  
"I am Shathur of Onveska, and a Jedi Knight of the Galactic Republic," said the robed figure. He put back his hood, revealing golden blonde hair, a goatee, and a cybernetic eye replacement. The cybernetic eye glowed with an eerie green light. "You were spotted by Senate guards, and, obviously, your special armor gave you away, as did your ship."  
"Another Onveskan then? I suppose you want to take me in for killing your planet's leader then," Keth chuckled.  
"No. I want to take you in for killing the senator of Onveska. She was my sister," Shathur said, leaning closer. Keth could now see battle scars covering the Jedi's face. A large scar ran from his forehead, over the socket of his cybernetic eye, and ending at his chin. "If you come quietly, I'll leave your boy alone, and you won't have to face my burning blade."  
"Fat chance, Shathur. I surrender to no one," Keth snarled.  
"Then I guess you'll be fighting to the death..." Shathur muttered. He detached something from his belt. It was made of silver and gold, with blue and green buttons on one side. Shathur pressed a green one, and a forest green lightsaber blade ignited. It illuminated Shathur's grim face.  
"I suppose so." Keth ignited his yellow lightsaber. He held it high above his head, the blade and body at a 90 degree angle. Shathur copied. Then they both swung in an arc, their blades locking down by their feet. Then they separated and backed away from each other. Shathur then lunged, swinging at Keth's midsection. Keth swung down and to the right, deflecting the blade away. Then Shathur rolled to the right, hacking at Keth's legs. Keth leaped over the lasersword and activated his jetpack. He landed on the hull of the Wraith Hunter, setting down his jetpack for more agility. He then unholstered his blaster pistol and unleashed a short volley. Shathur deflected them away, some towards Keth. Keth rolled off the side of the ship and onto the ground, landing on one knee. He brought out his other pistol and let off more shot bursts.  
Shathur expertly dodged and blocked them all, then leaped towards Keth. With a twirling slash, he destroyed one of Keth's pistols. Keth rolled backwards, and lit his saber again. He slashed downward, and Shathur upwards. The blades locked, with Keth standing and Shathur crouched. Then Shathur stuck out his hand, calling his Padawan's lightsaber to him from Keth's belt. The Jedi struck out at Keth's knee, but he leaped again, ran up a wall, and landed behind Shathur. Keth slashed down again, but Shathur had already moved off to his right. He was now holding his green blade to Keth's chest, and the blue blade was locked with Keth's.  
"Are you sure you aren't going to surrender?" Shathur asked. "All I have to do is twirl my saber in some direction, and you'd be cut in half or your arms severed."  
Brak answered for his father. Brak raised his pistol at fired, hitting Shathur in the arm. Shathur dropped his green saber, and Keth was able to move again. He slashed at Shathur's neck, but the Jedi blocked. He called his green saber to him and, locking it, threw the lightsaber at Brak. Keth tried to call it to him, but had to block another incoming blow from Shathur. Brak didn't have time to move, but somehow he knew when to fire, as if though some unknown being was talking to him. He pulled the trigger and the gold and silver handle of the lightsaber exploded in an array of sparks and metal shards and tangled wires. A small crystal landed close to Brak's arm, and he grabbed it and stuck it in the secret pocket in his boot.  
While that was happening, Shathur had pushed Keth back against a wall. He locked blades with Keth, and then forced it into a wall. The blades went through the wall, the energy blade crackling on each other and the metal surface of the wall. Shathur then quickly tore a stun baton from his belt and pulled the trigger. A small burst of electricity jumped from the tips of it and into Keth's body, rendering him unconscious. Shathur smiled as he prepared to slap a pare of stun cuffs on the Kidarian.  
Another shot rang out, and hit Shathur in the shoulder blade. With a shout of anguish, the Jedi dropped his stun cuffs and spun around to see Brak near the edge of the platform. Brak had quickly dashed behind Shathur while he stood over his fallen adversary. Brak fired again, and Shathur deflected. The Onveskan Jedi began advancing towards the boy, blocking shots and sending them bouncing towards Brak. Brak began backing up, and was on the edge of the building. Shathur slashed at Brak, who fell backwards to avoid being cut up. As he was plummeting down, he was caught by a web-like rope. An Arachanian Jedi pulled him up to a troopship, and bound him. Then it soared off towards the rising sun.  
Shathur watched the troopship zoom away.  
"Mission complete," he said into a comlink, talking to his Padawan. "Be ready to..."  
But he didn't finish. Keth had recovered from the stun baton, and raised his lightsaber over his head. Shathur turned to see it coming down...  
"I told you I never surrender, Jedi," Keth muttered, grabbing the lightsaber from the dead Jedi. 


	9. Escape from Coruscant

Chapter 8: The Duel with Shathur  
  
Keth had grabbed his jetpack and took the lift up to Brak's floor. He found Brak hiding in a cabinet in an abandoned apartment, or a room that had been made into an apartment.  
"Wow, Dad, you're not fried!" Brak exclaimed, astonished.  
"It wasn't easy, Brak," gasped Keth. "Trust me on that."  
Soon they were on the move again. The troopships had lost track of Keth and Brak, and had gone off to join the rest of the ships. They walked a little ways and then rested (for Keth's sake), and then took off by jetpack. The jetpack hummed and spouted flames through the nozzles, lifting Keth and Brak to the top of a tall building. They landed through an open skylight, and walked along a rickety metal catwalk. Below them the buildings stood as black monoliths, featureless in this dark hour. The long catwalk crossed over two other buildings before leading to the large landing platform atop an old skyscraper, once used as a bacta storage warehouse.  
Sitting in the far corner, in the shadows, was the Wraith Hunter. It had been moved from its original landing place in Ne'dan's outpost to ensure it was not destroyed. But there was no sign of an Anyota anywhere...  
"I have a bad feeling about this," muttered Keth. He could sense something out of place here, and an urge of nearby danger. "Brak, get in the ship. And prepare to use your pistols," ordered Keth, pointing in the direction of the ship. Brak quickly obeyed, but did not get in the ship. Instead, he crouched by it, pistols pointing to the sky.  
Then a shadowy figure walked out towards Keth. It was robed, with a hood on.  
"You are in trouble, bounty hunter," said the figure passively, in a low voice. "Killing a senator is a serious crime, and injuring a Jedi is another."  
"What is your proof that I did it? There are plenty of bounty hunters on Coruscant that could have done it," countered Keth. "Who are you anyway?"  
"I am Shathur of Onveska, and a Jedi Knight of the Galactic Republic," said the robed figure. He put back his hood, revealing golden blonde hair, a goatee, and a cybernetic eye replacement. The cybernetic eye glowed with an eerie green light. "You were spotted by Senate guards, and, obviously, your special armor gave you away, as did your ship."  
"Another Onveskan then? I suppose you want to take me in for killing your planet's leader then," Keth chuckled.  
"No. I want to take you in for killing the senator of Onveska. She was my sister," Shathur said, leaning closer. Keth could now see battle scars covering the Jedi's face. A large scar ran from his forehead, over the socket of his cybernetic eye, and ending at his chin. "If you come quietly, I'll leave your boy alone, and you won't have to face my burning blade."  
"Fat chance, Shathur. I surrender to no one," Keth snarled.  
"Then I guess you'll be fighting to the death..." Shathur muttered. He detached something from his belt. It was made of silver and gold, with blue and green buttons on one side. Shathur pressed a green one, and a forest green lightsaber blade ignited. It illuminated Shathur's grim face.  
"I suppose so." Keth ignited his yellow lightsaber. He held it high above his head, the blade and body at a 90 degree angle. Shathur copied. Then they both swung in an arc, their blades locking down by their feet. Then they separated and backed away from each other. Shathur then lunged, swinging at Keth's midsection. Keth swung down and to the right, deflecting the blade away. Then Shathur rolled to the right, hacking at Keth's legs. Keth leaped over the lasersword and activated his jetpack. He landed on the hull of the Wraith Hunter, setting down his jetpack for more agility. He then unholstered his blaster pistol and unleashed a short volley. Shathur deflected them away, some towards Keth. Keth rolled off the side of the ship and onto the ground, landing on one knee. He brought out his other pistol and let off more shot bursts.  
Shathur expertly dodged and blocked them all, then leaped towards Keth. With a twirling slash, he destroyed one of Keth's pistols. Keth rolled backwards, and lit his saber again. He slashed downward, and Shathur upwards. The blades locked, with Keth standing and Shathur crouched. Then Shathur stuck out his hand, calling his Padawan's lightsaber to him from Keth's belt. The Jedi struck out at Keth's knee, but he leaped again, ran up a wall, and landed behind Shathur. Keth slashed down again, but Shathur had already moved off to his right. He was now holding his green blade to Keth's chest, and the blue blade was locked with Keth's.  
"Are you sure you aren't going to surrender?" Shathur asked. "All I have to do is twirl my saber in some direction, and you'd be cut in half or your arms severed."  
Brak answered for his father. Brak raised his pistol at fired, hitting Shathur in the arm. Shathur dropped his green saber, and Keth was able to move again. He slashed at Shathur's neck, but the Jedi blocked. He called his green saber to him and, locking it, threw the lightsaber at Brak. Keth tried to call it to him, but had to block another incoming blow from Shathur. Brak didn't have time to move, but somehow he knew when to fire, as if though some unknown being was talking to him. He pulled the trigger and the gold and silver handle of the lightsaber exploded in an array of sparks and metal shards and tangled wires. A small crystal landed close to Brak's arm, and he grabbed it and stuck it in the secret pocket in his boot.  
While that was happening, Shathur had pushed Keth back against a wall. He locked blades with Keth, and then forced it into a wall. The blades went through the wall, the energy blade crackling on each other and the metal surface of the wall. Shathur then quickly tore a stun baton from his belt and pulled the trigger. A small burst of electricity jumped from the tips of it and into Keth's body, rendering him unconscious. Shathur smiled as he prepared to slap a pare of stun cuffs on the Kidarian.  
Another shot rang out, and hit Shathur in the shoulder blade. With a shout of anguish, the Jedi dropped his stun cuffs and spun around to see Brak near the edge of the platform. Brak had quickly dashed behind Shathur while he stood over his fallen adversary. Brak fired again, and Shathur deflected. The Onveskan Jedi began advancing towards the boy, blocking shots and sending them bouncing towards Brak. Brak began backing up, and was on the edge of the building. Shathur slashed at Brak, who fell backwards to avoid being cut up. As he was plummeting down, he was caught by a web-like rope. An Arachanian Jedi pulled him up to a troopship, and bound him. Then it soared off towards the rising sun.  
Shathur watched the troopship zoom away.  
"Mission complete," he said into a comlink, talking to his Padawan. "Be ready to..."  
But he didn't finish. Keth had recovered from the stun baton, and raised his lightsaber over his head. Shathur turned to see it coming down...  
"I told you I never surrender, Jedi," Keth muttered, grabbing the lightsaber from the dead Jedi. 


	10. The Payday

Chapter 10: The Payday  
  
Tarkin Val'Tala was watching a spectacular show at the Cloud Runner Resort on Bespin. Trained thrantas were swooping around in the sky. Stunt cloud cars were zipping around and performing insane stunts. Dancers were up on high platforms, dancing in the whipping winds. And best of all, there were no bounty hunters wanting to be paid or business men telling him to come to a meeting. Yep, he was going to enjoy his vacation to Bespin. He sat back in his chair and put his sun visors on.  
Suddenly, a shadow fell over him. A blaster was raised to his head.  
"We have some unfinished business," said the Ubese assassin.  
"Oh no, not you again! What do you want?" Val'Tala shrieked, stumbling back and falling off of his chair. He knocked over a passing butler droid, who spilled drinks all over Val'Tala. The Besilisk's white vest and shirt were now a splash of blue, pink, and orange. The Ubese was going to pull the trigger to his blaster when...  
Pa-ping! pa-ping! pa-ping! A trio of laser bolts exploded against the assassin's jetpack, which malfunctioned and sent him flying. He crashed through a window and into the lobby of the hotel, slamming against a wall. He tried to get up, but then several Bespin police surrounded him and led him away to a shuttle.  
Val'Tala grabbed the hand offered to him and pulled himself up. When he saw who had helped him up, he fell over again.  
"Keth!" he shouted, surprised. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again! Especially when facing down a Dark Jedi!"  
"Amazing, isn't it?" asked Keth cheerfully. "One day I'm a normal bounty hunter trying to make his way in the universe, the next I'm using the Force and have killed four wanted men and tons of pirates and policemen and Jedi. Now hand over the two million credits you owe me, if you'll be so kind."  
"You're a funny man, Keth. Show me proof that you've killed all four of the pirates on my bounty! And then get me a towel..."  
Keth had obviously been prepared to show him proof. He pulled out a bantha-skin sack and opened it. He poured out the contents onto Val'Tala's chair. "Doc-Far's blaster pistol, Krrathor's Ryyk blade, Baret Nuor's blaster cannon..." Keth held up an severed, armored arm with several buttons where the hand was, as well as a blaster barrel and trigger. "...and Mon Tifoke's lightsaber." Keth activated the lightsaber, swung it around a few times, and put it at his belt again, next to the blue-bladed lightsaber of the Jedi Padawan he had stolen it from. He then stuffed the proof back in his bag after Val'Tala had examined it.  
"If you don't believe me, I have pictures," chuckled Keth, handing Val'Tala towel and helping him up again.  
"No, that's quite alright..." the Besilisk muttered, getting out his wallet. He looked through it a bit, but then just took out his cards and pictures and gave Keth the wallet. "It seems that two million credits are all I have left in there! Oh well, I can always get more money from the bank..."  
"Thank you, Tarkin. I'll be seeing you around...and if there is a bounty issued about you, I'll defend you instead." Keth turned, tucked the wallet in his pocket, and began walking away. He looked over his shoulder and muttered "...for a price..." 


End file.
